EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: During the first couple weeks in June, 2005, Mom made a nest in the lilacs outside the back garage window of a crazy guy with a camera. He kept pestering Mom and us kids by taking a whole bunch of photos...and then he posted them on the Web for the whole world to see. How embarrassing.

I'd better explain a few things so you don't get the wrong ideas about our family. The camera guy took the first pictures on June 4, when we were still in our little blue eggs -- although he didn't take photos of our pretty eggs. The four of us cracked out of our eggs between June 4th and June 8th, when the guy started taking photos again.

Originally there were four of us, but somewhere along the line one of us disappeared; then there were three: Rob, Sue, and Me. You might be interested in our parents' activities. First, Mom built most of the nest, with a little help from Dad. She even had plastic sheeting as part of the construction materials. Eventually she smoothed the center part of our home by rubbing her red breast over fresh mud she mixed up somehow. Then she laid the eggs and sat on us for at least 40 minutes at a time during the day, with brief breaks to McDonalds for her food.

After we were hatched, she, with Dad helping a little, fed us very often -- sometimes a hundred times per day! We were really hungry and would eat anything since we couldn't get our eyes open at first. The feeding routine was to find worms primarily by sight (not exclusively by sound as popularly thought), bring them to our open mouths and stick them in deep past our crop. Their routine was to feed at least one of us. Then wait for us to poop in the little white mucus sacs which they grabbed up and either swallowed or flew off to dump in the bird latrine. Mom usually just swallowed the poop sac; then to settle us down, she just sat on us. Actually sitting on us was nice, warm and dry. Other times Mom spent lots of time house cleaning by pecking at the bugs and junk in our nest. Dad didn't always show up, so sometimes Mom sat on a nearby fence and yelled for him to get home with the groceries.

When each of us left the nest, Mom completely ignored the one who left or was ready to leave and just fed those remaining. And those who decided to leave ignored Mom's worms! (Sort of arogant I thought.) Dad took over feeding those who left the nest and showed them how to fly and find their own food. Sadly, most of us may die the first year, often during the migration to Texas, or where ever, but those remaining may live from 3 to 5 more years if we play our cards right.

That's enough background, let's get on with the pictures.